Sporting Kansas City signs Peter Vermes to contract extension

Sporting Kansas City manager Peter Vermes was all smiles Monday morning after practice. MLS’s longest tenured coach signed a contract extension through the end of the 2023 season. The announcement came with Sporting KC sitting on top of the Western Conference and just a couple days removed from Vermes winning his 150^th game in all competitions as Sporting KC’s head coach.

Vermes: “When you’re in a place where you’re extremely happy to go to work everyday, I don’t know what else I would be searching and hoping for when it’s right here.”

Vermes was the Technical Director since the new ownership took over and became the head coach as well in 2009. Since then the team has won the 2013 MLS Cup and the Lamar Hunt U.S. Open Cup in 2012, 2015 and 2017

“I think there has been a tremendous amount of progress since the ownership took over,” Vermes told reporters. “I started with the ownership in 2006 when they bought the team. If you look from then to now there has been progress in so many ways. The front office, the technical side, facilities all of these things. Now it is important to become really, really good at some of the things that are our big initiatives and one of those is the pro-pathway.”

Sporting KC Owners play a little defense

It is no secret that Peter Vermes is mentioned in every list to fill the vacant U.S. National Team manager and also the new U.S. Technical Director role.

“I don’t think I’m breaking news here, we want him here and not anywhere else,” Sporting KC CEO/President Jake Reid told The Blue Testament. “The U.S is the one that has been out there, but I think Peter said it well. He has a huge commitment to be here and wants to be here and obviously we share that same belief. I’m not going to sugar-coat it and say it had nothing to do with it, we obviously want him here for the long term. We believe in what he has done and what he has yet to do.”

Reid and Vermes work closely together and SKC’s CEO/President not only praised that relationship but also the job that Vermes has already accomplished. “I think our structure just works right. Peter and I get along extremely well and not just from liking each other but philosophically we view it the same way. We don’t make decisions based on what’s happening at the end of May in a game on the 27^th at home but rather where we will be in three, five years as the league evolves. Some people can meet that and some people fall away and there are teams in the league that have clearly fallen away. He has done a great job keeping of not only keeping us relevant but we are right in that championship discussion every year.”

”This is a great day for Sporting Kansas City,” Sporting Club co-owner Mike Illig said in the press release. “Peter has become one of the most successful managers in the history of Major League Soccer, and we are delighted to extend his contract at the club. This long-term deal shows commitment from the organization and from Peter, who has helped the club accomplish remarkable things on and off the field for the last decade. He has guided the first team to four major championships and seven straight playoff appearances while playing an integral role in the development of the Sporting KC Academy, Swope Park Rangers and world-class facilities such as Children’s Mercy Park, Swope Soccer Village and Pinnacle. His passion, energy and attention to detail make him one of a kind, and we are excited for Peter to lead Sporting KC well into the future.”